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Ahoy my noble readers! I am Dio Buccaneer and this is "So Far And Beyond"! Today we will be discussing the Werewolves as antagonists as of this arc and how they, in my opinion, do not live up to their promise as villians. This is part 2 of my series on this arc.

To start us off, when we saw a werewolf antagonist for the first time, their potential was immense. Lunark fought evenly with Frankenstein in one of the most ferocious fights in the series and from what we saw later, she held back a little as she did not use her Wolf Phantom attack. She had the strength to destroy scyscrapers with a swing and the regeneration to tank the Dark Spear. The next time we saw a glimpse of the Werewolf potential was when Muzaka used his Wolf Fang Bite against Gaitan turning the fight to a fireworks display and confirming that his kind has moves similar to the Loyard Grim Reaper and the Blood Phoenix. The hype was through the roof.

That being said, let us take things from an antagonistic point of view. How were they as enemies? First, Lunark and Kentas showed us potential that they could keep up with the Nobles just fine. Then, Muzaka showed that he could survive the Blood Phoenix head on. Then, things start going downhill... Grui and Gaitan (the first Modified Warriors to appear) underperform. Demonstrating a level of genre blindness that would come to plague the species, they get slaughtered by Muzaka as they take him on without waiting for backup. This would be good if it was an isolated incident but it was not to be. Later, during the invation of Lukedonia, we saw the Crew of Drakon, Mount, Kuharu and Kaiyo invade Lukedonia and get a taste of Kei 's power. Mount gets hit in the head (twice) after trying to headbutt Kei and leaves a crater, Kaiyo has her arm broken, Kuharu did not even get there as he was killed by an exhausted and heavily injured Rajak who managed to outspeed him even with injured ankles and Drakon offered nothing more than a regenerating punching bag in the form of his body. The only progress they made was when they ganged up against Kei and even that was interruped by Raskreia. Later, Mount became Franky 's iron butt monkey, as a group they were destroyed by Raskreia (even though Edian was assisting them) and only became a problem when they were absorbed by Lagus. Congratulations is what I say to them! In the next arc, things kind of improved for them. First, Gayare fought M-21 and well underperformed heavily especially for a True Warrior, then he was killed by a dead tired Kentas who put his last strength in one hit after tanking a punch through the belly. He was barely strong enough to be considered a True Warrior. Then we have Uzhir 's, Dorant 's and Zaiga's Crews. Some of their members seemed capable of transforming a second time and this increases their power. That new power was not enough however as their members could barely make a dent against their opponents with exceptions like Zaiga (who was a Lord cantidate), Dorant (who won the first round by the fact that the Dark Spear was acting up), Gaura (who fought a drained Rozaria) and Uzhir (who barely survived because he was a little stronger than the rest of his crew). More recently, the wonder twins Mirai and Urne ganged up against Lunark barely winning but losing once M-21 joins the fight. Lunark crushes Mirai which distracts Urne who is beaten by M-21. The tables are turned as Juraki saves Mirai from the slaughter and has Urne focus on her fight which she wins. That being said, M-21 had endured a fight with a True Warrior, three days worth of torture and experimentation, a beating from Ignes and more experimentation before being saved by Lunark. What I mean to say is bravo to Urne for winning against a healthy, full of energy and stamina opponent. Then with the combined efforts of the RK Urne was killed. Juraki thrashed Lunark but since she was exhausted he could barely call it a victory which he acknowledged. He then sees Franky turning Mirai into a crossbreed of a chihuahua and swiss cheese as she bites more than she can chew and gets impaled in the everywhere. A tale as old as time that of the difference between the power gained and power given. At that point, the Clan Leaders bar Rozaria appear, Juraki grabs Mirai and bolts it for Maduke. Few realise how smart that was: by going there he will meet up with the strongest member of their side and regroup with the rest of the Warriors as they will all be going to check up on their Lord as the two attacks got everyone 's attention. That is brilliant by Werewolf standards as they tend to have more guts than brains (and once their opponent is done with them they lack those too). Juraki should be running the show for all I care. Garda also severely injured Muzaka but since he was holding back and had her beat once he stopped it is not worth much mention.


As far as power and abilities are conserned, the Werewolves rely on their power up rather than training too far. Let us look at how Werewolves as a standard work: A Werewolf has a superior regeneration to a Noble. I would say that for them a few cuts will heal within a few seconds. Regeneration in general works mysteriously but I think I have it figured out. It has to do with aura being applied to the wound with the more aura applied, the more the outcome and the increase of speed of the result. The ratio of aura applied versus the injury healed varies through person though a Werewolf has a more favorable ratio that anyone else. Werewolves benefit from that as their biology allows them to naturally grow back limps and organs, something Nobles and Humans have to undergo a lot of modification to replicate. It might have to do with stem cells as they can become many other types of cells. The Modification process increases the ratio for the better further as they think nothing of regenerating arms after being Modified. However, a few individuals stand out in that domain. Drakon for example was given the type of regeneration that allowed him to regenerate organ and limp alike without a difficulty though that came at the cost of his health as his Crew worried when he used it. It is propably cast from the lifespan is what I am saying. Zaiga, on the other end, had a sub-par regeneration and pushed for the development of Modification to overcome it. His regeneration was propably only a bit higher than Kei 's judging from the fact that they were healing at the same rate but Zaiga said that his wounds were closer to healing completely. Mirai also regenerated her lower body after she was cut in half rather quickly. I assume that the more they regenerate the more tired they get, with their worse injuries sapping a lot of their stamina. That means that they cannot fight indefinitely. That becomes a problem when they deal with people who take advantage of that like Frankenstein. Franky 's ability to poison the body and stop regeneration is at full force when fighting against an opponent who prefers to tank rather than dodge and since they cannot just change a battlestyle that they have been using for centuries, they suffer greatly. That is worsened by the fact that Frankenstein 's power works much better on Modified being slowing the healing of wounds and stopping outright the regeneration of limps. When facing him, Werewolves are a blessing as there is little they can do other than become part of his power. Another problem that hurts their potential as villians is their techniques. Few if any have more than slashes and beams, even fewer have the Wolf Phantom and even less have more than that. The latter ones are Zaiga, Dorant, Uzhir, Mirai, Urne, Kuharu and Muzaka as of now. That makes their fights much less interesting. Now let us catalog those more unique techniques. Zaiga: lighting spell, explosion spell, Cerberusspell, Dorant: wolf heads that are used for melee and aura blasts, Uzhir: wolf cloud, Mirai and Urne: barrier, Kuharu: flame-like aura,  Muzaka: wolf cloud and wolf fang.

As for raw skill and fighting style, the Werewolves have it not cut out for them. When it comes to the Unmodified True Warriors, Lunark kept up with Karias only because of the assistance of the 3rd Elder alone. She has neither long range attacks nor the bulk to withstand many arrows from him. She could keep up with Frankenstein because of his fighting style being closer to what she was used to fight but judging from her growing frustration during the fight as opposed to enjoyment, she did not like not being able to close in on her opponent when he could snipe her out from a mile. Kentas did much worse than he things too against Rajak. Rajak was faster than Kuharu (the fastest werewolf) and had two techniques which he did not use (the swarm of bats and the invisibility). Kentas had a counter for neither and could be killed with a stab on the heart like Kuharu. On the Modified front, Dorant 's crew was underpowered to handle CL level opponents once they got serious and Dorant, even though he was victorious for a moment, was surpassed in speed by an tired Rael (who was new to the position of CL) and Karias who managed to give him heavy injuries as well as overcoming a Frankenstein that was weakened from his Dark Spear. Even then however, he was crushed by Franky after he recovered.  Uzhir 's crew had faced Muzaka and despite getting hits on him they were defeated by him when he got serious. Zaiga had more power than Kei and showed a greater variety in attacks keeping the CL in his toes. His crew however, were not as skilled or strong as Gaura fell to a drained Rozaria and the other thought it was as simple to kill a Lord as anyone else by catching them of guard (even though her eyes were on him). Urne and Mirai however had it worse. They were unfit to battle as they lacked the focus required. Urne was distracted and getting beaten by M-21 even though he had been through more physical and mental hardships in that week than she her entire life. Mirai is her own can of worms as she assaulted Frankenstein who had quite a name amongst the Werewolves as the strongest Human ever and did not get the memo even after getting schooled by him. Instead of being on her toes after having her sister die, she instead chose to have a temper tantrum even when they were encircled by enemies. Juraki shows a level of intellegence and caution unheard from the Werewolves and that makes him (in my opinion) the most dangerous member of the opposition. Maduke 's power level is unknown but if he relies on the Modifications as much as the rest of them, then he must be in great danger against both Muzaka and Frankenstein.

Now, for the part you have all been waiting for: Werewolves as foil to the Nobles. They serve as an opposite to the Nobles. Werewolves have latched to Modification while the Nobles refused to. The Werewolves rely exclusively to the power gained from Modification or fighting styles that were ineffective. The Nobles, on the other hand, developed their powers and skills and adapted to the changing times by using fighting styles that take advantage of the enemy and exploit weaknesses. There are few Nobles that accepted Modification while there are few Werewolves that did not. Again this is showing the difference between power gained from hard work and power gained from being handed. Someone who trains hard and understands their limits do not think they are invincible as they do grow very tired. The power of regeneration while great does not make one invincible as there are things that cannot regenerate and a warrior willing to ignore injuries is vulnerable to instantly lethal attacks such as blows to the head and heart (as Kuharu showed). As a foil, they do a seemingly good job but not really. The did the opposite of what the Nobles did even if it was the stupid thing to do. When the hard working athlete and the couch potato both want to win an sprint, is there really a contest? What is near complete opposite does not always make for a good fight.

All in all, while the war is not a breeze, it is no mountain either. The Werewolves have relied upon experimental units that did not see real fighting and thus if their forces were ships, few of their fleet would be seaworthy. There are two CLs who have not joined the fight and even if Lukedonia were to be invaded, they and the pure-blooded relatives of the CLs (assuming those that are attacking the Werewolves right now were to die) will be ready to fight with home field advantage and without Lagus' help with dealing with the barrier, the Nobles will never be off-guard. And even if Lukedonia were to fall, the Werewolves would not be ready to face the now distrusting Union. And even if they did, should they survive, they would propably run out of sustainable population especially since they barely had any to begin with and the way they sacrifice their own. Big goals, short sight is the Werewolf Way.

Well guys, that was "So Far And Beyond". I hope you liked it and join us for part 3 when it comes out. Until then, live nobly and take care, everyone!

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